


Who Ya Gonna Call?

by sanctum_c



Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, F/F, Ghost Hunters, Ghosts, Light-Hearted, Magic, Materia (Compilation of FFVII), Midgar (Compilation of FFVII), One Shot, Psychic Abilities, Sleep Deprivation, Sleepiness, Video Game Mechanics, train graveyard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:21:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28158966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: “As much as the supernatural seems to adhere to some scientific principles, there are all these factors potentially affecting things. This branch of science is still so young and we don’t have much of an idea of the wider effects. We don’t know what – for example – your presence might trigger.” Ah. Not merely two women on the night shift, Jessie was leveraging her murky heritage’s connection back to the Lifestream. Remarkable Jessie had never contemplated such a test before.“So you want me plus our massively successful team member to take the night shift?”Jessie grinned at her. “Exactly. Not tonight obviously because you’ll be dead on your feet. But tomorrow I think. So Zack will switch with Tifa; he and Cloud take the day and you and Tifa take the night. Minor chance I’ll get the capture system working by then.”Aeris works with Zack as part of a supernatural investigation team, normally investigating spiritual disturbances during the daytime. An accident puts Cloud who works on the night-team out of commission and as a result Aeris winds up accompanying Tifa on a night-time visit to the Train Graveyard.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10
Collections: 2020 FF7 Secret Santa





	Who Ya Gonna Call?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shivadyne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shivadyne/gifts).



> Written for the prompt:
> 
> _tifa and aeris are ghost hunters that usually work with their respective teams (zack and aeris, cloud and tifa), but they were assigned on this case all together. they make the best of it and aeris and tifa get along really well. aeris offers to protect tifa from the ghosts (since tifa's scared of them and mostly comes along as a psychic when cloud needs her)._

Aeris was a Ghost Hunter.

To some the notion of spending time investigating and researching ghost sightings was flippantly unnecessary; there was clearly was a post-death existence of some kind in the merged consciousness of the Lifestream. Merging with it was a fate awaiting each and every person, plant, animal and monster on the Planet at the end of their lives. All reborn again in the future, never the same and formed into someone or something new. No judgement, no rules; an impartial, uncaring mechanical process. To live was to die to live again.

Assuming the Mako reactors did not catch you. A continued and chilling fear for one’s seeming immortal nature. One also demanding further investigation alongside the ghosts who pointedly failed to fit adequately into any modelled lifecycle of the world. Future concern; for now the focus was on spirit manifestations.

Some ghost sightings were clearly human. Others monstrous. Some were too vague to discern one way or the other. All found in cities and towns across the world in some form. Further afield were rare sightings out in the wilderness with almost no corroborating witnesses. Not clear how seriously to take those.

But the how and why and more whys of ghosts and their nature was a question hanging heavily over these sightings. There was perilously little real study into the phenomena and its connection back to the nature of the Lifestream. Or was it something more recent and ghosts were more common in the present with the rise in Mako power? Did Mako production induce ghosts somehow?

Some of the ignorance was a general dismissal of the phenomenon; ghosts were too often depicted in films and television, something not real and instead used to spook the easily rattled. But despite the flippant attitude, ghosts did pose a threat. Inhuman ghosts were often strange and hostile figures capable of moving massive objects, or causing physical harm. In a few badly documented – though rare – cases, some seemed capable of possessing another living creature; human, animal, or monster.

The Ghost Hunters undertook their investigation into the paranormal as two teams. Aeris and Zack headed a day team – though the distinction between day and night was physically nebulous for them in the slums. Despite this nominal distinction, the passage of time had some unexpected and so far unexplained effects on the types and natures of spirits encountered. Reports filed by Cloud and Tifa – the night team – differed significantly from Aeris’s own experiences. Another of the innumerable mysteries facing the group.

Jessie was fiddling with something emitting a deep mechanical whine when Aeris reached the combined office-lab the never-warm Ghost Hunters operated from. Worn-out sofas, filing cabinets and multiple workbenches lined the room. More of a converted garage than actual office, but effective as a base of operations. Cirumstances required two calls of Jessie’s name before the engineer’s soot-streaked face shifted focus to Aeris and away from the complicated apparatus spread over a workbench. “Oh hi.” She casually flipped a switch and the electronic drone of the equipment faded away, numerous status lights blinking out of existence.

“How is it coming?”

“Almost got portable and powerful.” Jessie grinned. “Can’t wait to have a captive specimen.”

Alongside identifying and investigating ghosts came other potentials. Violent and monstrous ghosts were nuisance pests at best and actively hazardous at worst. Many members of the public were desperate to hire the Ghost Hunters in expectation they could provide some method of removal. Not unwarranted; both teams had successfully removed ghosts from residences, though the methods for achieving this typically stemmed from unfinished business for the spirit in question. Only so many times one could follow up on the consequences of a ghost’s original demise, seek out a lost love, long lost family or follow clues to stashed treasure.

Unfortunately, for every successful case came one where the trail seemed so promising but ended with the concealed hoard long since discovered and the looted by some other party.

And no one currently had a workable plan for dealing with monstrous ghosts.

The equipment represented a good step in the right direction; a quicker and more impartial method to capture, imprison and relocate supernatural entities. And try not to think about the implications of becoming a ghost and thus falling foul of the same notions in the future. “But not testable yet?” The sheer fact Jessie had not thrown the piece of equipment at Aeris as soon as she walked through the door implied the request for her presence today was for something else.

“Oh, my no.” Jessie glanced around to her prototype and patted it. “Currently all anyone has to do is sneeze too close to it and everyone in the room is going to disintegrate.” Aeris took a pointed step back, gaze fixed on the spot Jessie’s hand patted. “Kidding. Mostly.” Aeris opened her mouth to reply and Jessie plunged on. “Cloud – you remember Cloud, right?”

A brief meeting at the project's inception, he and his partner existing as a kind of distant mirror to Aeris and Zack; their own ghosts so to speak. “Mostly?”

“Something happened and Cloud has, ah, developed a condition.” Jessie became fascinated with her shoes and small pieces of debris on the ground.

“A condition?”

“Afraid of the dark.”

Aeris snorted. A preposterous issue for ghost hunters at the best of times, to say nothing of the night team. “Do I even want to know how and why?”

“Something he and Tifa were looking into, some effect the ghost had on him. Tifa managed to avoid it thankfully, it’s all in the reports. Not the important bit.” Her smile widened. “Now, I know the obvious solution would be to flip your shifts so you’re on night duty, but Tifa has an absolutely amazing success rate with encounters and sightings during the night. Way better than Cloud. Better than you too.”

“Huh.” Perhaps she should have read the night team’s reports more thoroughly.

“So we want to keep her on nights.” A glint in Jessie’s eye. “And I do believe you’ve never engaged in a night hunt at all.”

“I haven’t.” Aeris frowned. “Is that necessary?”

“Who knows?” Jessie shrugged. “As much as the supernatural seems to adhere to some scientific principles, there are all these factors potentially affecting things. This branch of science is still so young and we don’t have much of an idea of the wider effects. We don’t know what – for example – your presence might trigger.” Ah. Not merely two women on the night shift, Jessie was leveraging her murky heritage’s connection back to the Lifestream. Remarkable Jessie had never contemplated such a test before.

“So you want me plus our massively successful team member to take the night shift?”

Jessie grinned at her. “Exactly. Not tonight obviously because you’ll be dead on your feet. But tomorrow I think. So Zack will switch with Tifa; he and Cloud take the day and you and Tifa take the night. Minor chance I’ll get the capture system working by then.”

“You can take longer. I mean, I can’t control my sneezing so easily.”

Jessie scoffed. “I’m kidding.” Beside her the equipment sparked and a plume of flame erupted from within. “It’s supposed to do that.” Jessie scrambled for a fire-extinguisher and blasted the workbench with it. She blew a rogue strand of hair out of her mouth. “Any problems with the plan?”

None for Aeris. Strange not to work with Zack, but the opportunity offered something new.

Unfortunately the abrupt change to the teams and assignments left her at something of a loose end for the rest of the day. Her whole routine thrown off; no easy way to recapture it. Talk to Zack possibly and wish him well on his reassignment with Cloud. An apparent end of an era, out of the blue and without warning.

The night hunts did at least sound intriguing. Based on pop-culture depictions, the night was far more likely to yield manifestly weird supernatural entities and fewer instances of nothing beyond feelings of dread in various basements and attics.

And Tifa was nice. Maybe. Based on memory.

So long since their one meeting – another side-effect of their split duties between day and night. Vague details bubbled up from memory. Tifa and Cloud had – via an improbable series of events – both originated from the same town, were about the same age and yet only gotten to know each other after the place burned to the ground and found each other in Midgar. They were not – as far as Jessie knew; her the only person who interacted with both teams and seemingly had either strange sleeping patters or no sleeping pattern – dating. Which was hardly notable; not like she and Zack were nor entertained the idea.

Aeris wandered homewards for bed. Sleeping now was the best starting point to flip her body to the opposing time-frame.

Easier said than done. In Midgar. During day-time hours.

At least living in the slums precluded the sun factoring into this as a problem. Best to think of the day as any other but with her chores done hours and hours earlier than normal. A few food items from the supermarket, a check of the church and its fledgling patch of greenery. No flowers yet, but it should only be a matter of time.

Only after pulling the curtains closed at home, stuffing cotton wool in her ears and attempting to wrap a shirt around her head did it become clear to Aeris why the population of the world tended to leave sleeping to the night-time.

People were so noisy.

So much movement, too loud music and TV programs. People shouting in the streets to sell, to entice, to communicate, to accuse.

Infrequent, thunderous noises took a bit longer to place as Aeris fidgeted in bed willing sleep to take her. Realisation came during hour two of sleeplessness: traffic on the Upper Plate. This noise – like the rest – faded into the background on a normal day, but magnified and difficult to ignore during the pursuit of sleep.

Her dreams came eventually in fits and starts. Seemed like she had barely slept when the alarm sounded and she struggled out of bed. Odd to eat breakfast at this time of day, to hear other lives around her in neighbouring apartments wind-down as she was starting up. And now she nothing to do for the night. Quieter streets, though at least the shops were open twenty-four hours. Shopping obtained, she retreated home – and set out again. With her switch to nocturnal hours, she would still need to make an additional effort to keep the garden going.

Odd and faintly nerve-wracking with so few people around. Aeris clutched her staff and carried on regardless.

The atmosphere of night in the slums was palpably different. No grey – sometimes blue – sky visible in the far distance out from under the plates or up through the gap between Sectors four and five. Oddly easy to believe the night team might have much more of a success in detecting and finding manifestations in this atmosphere. Night-time also felt far more appropriate time for testing Jessie’s equipment. More ghosts to aim at.

Hard to see in the church; deep shadows pooled in the corners, only specific and too small patches of the floor illuminated by distant lights. Enough surrounding light-sources to see what she was doing – mostly anyway. Must remember to bring a torch next time. Hopefully she had not blundered and damaged the garden too much. And once her limited work complete, nothing to do but wind her way back home and keep occupied until her new bedtime.

Something about staying awake overnight made clear how long the portion of the day most people slept through was. She fought back the impulse to find someone else to talk to; outside of Jessie, most people she knew would be sleeping. She could reach out to Tifa, but perhaps better to wait and make a fresh start tomorrow when face to face. The television offered few distractions – programming at this early hour was replete with dull education programs, obscure low budget films, and extreme niche interests. Focusing on a book or magazine was tiring.

The night wore on exhaustingly. At least going forward there would more distractions in the form of the night patrols. But she also needed to obtain some more easy to digest distractions; videos and old TV shows for nights like this. Something again to approach normalcy, despite huddling in her dressing gown and contemplating reprogramming the thermostat. And perhaps there was a cure for Cloud’s fears and Aeris could return to the day shift. A whole other effort to shift her sleeping patterns back, but would offer an escape from the almost nether-world version of every-day life when everything was theoretically the same except all the details were wrong, or delayed or she was at best twelve hours removed from everyone and everything.

Exhaustion and boredom helped her daytime slumber pass so much easier as her internal clock shifted more out of sync with before. And still Aeris anticipated a glimpse of the distant sun when she opened her curtains or stepped out of doors. No such luck; nothing but the fading ebb of sunset. Night followed and brought no sign of the moon. Almost enough to make her head back to bed and sleep through to morning. No. She had agreed to this.

Jessie was, by dint of her appalling diet, upright and seemingly bright-eyed as she worked away. Her ability to cope with this time of day was no great mystery given the group’s garbage always contained a larger than expected collection of energy drink cans and coffee grounds. Beside her, perched on a stool and chatting to her, Tifa sipped at a coffee. Prettier than Aeris remembered. Tifa swallowed hurriedly when she spotted Aeris.

“Hi guys.” Aeris called.

Jessie waved a vague hand, still intent on whatever she was doing, but Tifa put down her mug and slipped off her stool. “Hi. Again. It’s... It’s been a while?”

“It has.” Tifa seemed slightly wary, her brow furrowing into a frown for some reason. An implication they might not get on so well? Tifa ducked her head and focused her attention on Jessie for a beat and glanced back; her gaze contained something unfamiliar. What was it? “You okay?” Best to clear these things up straight-away. Not let them fester and grow to resentment. If there was a fundamental issue, Aeris would try to address it somehow.

“Fine.” Tifa forced a smile. “Just... This is new.”

Might be trickier to reach the root of the issue. Something to discuss later. “Yeah.” Aeris nodded, putting the matter aside for now.

Tifa shot another wary glance to Jessie who may or may have not heard a single word. “So, I figure I should catch you up with mine and Cloud’s investigation.” Tifa kept voluminous notes which put Aeris’s write-ups to shame. Detailed sequences of events and times, precisely described sections of the city. Strict adherence to the still evolving classification systems. Plans for further missions, a barrage of timed measurements from the team’s detection instruments. All of it built up a startlingly clear image of what Cloud and Tifa had encountered – and it overshadowed everything Aeris and Zack had ever seen.

“And you see this stuff every night?”

“Not every night.” Tifa shot her a grin. “Thankfully. If the city was that flooded with ghosts we wouldn’t be able to move and I would expect some major incidents. And no one would doubt they existed.“ They ran into a lot.

Flipping through the pages, Aeris noted an odd omission. Not at all clear from the reports was what had lead Cloud and Tifa to each location and the resulting ghostly encounters. All of Zack and Aeris’s investigations stemmed from impassioned pleas by worried members of the public. Tifa and Cloud seemed as though they were tracking or perhaps somehow pre-empting ghost sightings.

Curious. What was the difference between day and night patrols other than the participants? Was all this down to time of day?

Tifa continued bringing Aeris up to speed, now with some occasional inputs from Jessie. She was close to finishing her work she insisted, asserting if they hung on for a little bit longer the equipment would be ready for a field test. Aeris shared a familiar look with Tifa – one she and Zack adopted long before. Give Jessie a few minutes and unless the equipment magically appeared fully functional they would lose an hour if not more before she conceded it needed more work. Always better to give Jessie a sliver of time and flee.

Today was a typical example. Jessie got super-focused on the equipment, Aeris and Tifa were able to sling supplies and working equipment into their bags and head out with nothing new to try. Curious to see the similarities between her and Tifa. Both favoured the older devices Jessie constructed for detecting supernatural forces in the operator’s vicinity, and both picked the same brand of chocolate snack.

Not a long walk to the investigation site; tonight they would tackle the Train Graveyard. Infamously haunted, and to someone outside their organisation, the obvious place to conduct their investigations. But infamy and rumour were no assurance of anything. Aeris had endured so many investigations wherein the conclusion was feline shenanigans or pure urban legend or pranks to assume they would encounter anything remotely supernatural. Popular perception of a place could easily obfuscate what was genuinely there.

The Train Graveyard was undeniably creepy during the day when someone might be near-by. By night the place was dim and distant, and if not filled with ghosts, a likely monster nest. This impression of the place fed back and into the avoidance of exploring the place previously. How many ghost sightings were genuinely of ghosts and not monsters or pranks or misunderstandings? Better to ensure they could detect actual ghosts and not spend a horrendous length of time tracking down what would ultimately turn out to be something familiar and unable to contribute anything for their studies into the nature of life and death.

So both night and day teams devoted and fine-tuned Jessie’s various inventions to confirm they were capable of detecting genuine spiritual energy. But though the train graveyard seemed like a potential hot-bed, Zack and Aeris had not yet come close to planning a trip there. How were Cloud and Tifa so much further along in this regard?

“It’s ah-“ Tifa flushed. Strange response.

“I mean, you don’t have to explain.” Aeris sped up slightly, leaving Tifa a pace behind her. Spare her the blushes. Perhaps she and Cloud had used the place for some romantic privacy and seen a ghost as a result? “Just curious.”

Tifa exhaled behind her. “So Jessie never did tell anyone.” Aeris glanced over her shoulder; Tifa wore the same frown, the same odd look in her eyes when Aeris met her in the office. She opened her mouth to ask, but Tifa beat her to it. “I’m kind of psychic.”

Aeris blinked and struggled to reply. How to respond to such an assertion? Ghosts and supernatural entities were one thing, but psychics were something else.

Numerous people claimed to have the capability in the slums; a decent money-maker if a person was capable of spinning the right kind of vague. The notion of such an ability should not be any more outlandish than the concepts of ghosts and spirits persisting in the world, yet somehow it seemed so much more out there, less plausible. “And that’s helped you on the night patrols?”

“Yes.” Tifa sighed and shrugged. “And you don’t believe me. No one ever does.”

“I.” Aeris cast around. “Sorry. It’s the scientific principle I guess. Need evidence. Can’t simply believe someone.”

A nod from Tifa. “And obviously we’ve not spent much time together and why would you trust me and-“ She broke off and stared towards the train wreckage.

“Yeah, this might not be best time,” Aeris said, glancing around, a shiver running the length of her spine. The silent stacks of abandoned trains and the avenues they formed vanished into distant gloom and evoked a strange sense of uneasiness. Something sounded in the distance.

Tifa dragged her attention back to Aeris. “I can prove my ability easily. Though, it’s about you.” She shuffled her feet. “You’ve got a connection to the Planet. It’s-“ Tifa frowned. “Faint, but there.” Aeris’s heart skipped a beat. “You can hear or maybe sense things others can’t. Not like I can. And you’re responding to it somehow?”

“How.” Aeris gaped at her. “I never told anyone. Not Zack, not Jessie. Not even my Mom.” She crept closer. “You... you are the real thing. Quick, what number am I thinking of?”

Tifa grinned. “Not that kind of psychic. Can’t read minds, but ghosts I can do. It’s like I’m attuned to them. Or maybe it’s more of a feeling. All I know is where they are and where they’re not.”

“No wonder the night-team’s so good.” Aeris gestured over her shoulder. “And I’m guessing there’s something in there.”

“Yeah.” Tifa nodded and took another deep breath. “And that brings me to the confession.”

“You’re already proven yourself-“

Tifa shook her head. “Not like that. It’s something you should know if we’re going to work together. I mean, I told Cloud – had to really. Told Jessie too. And it just sounds so silly but it’s the truth.” Tifa straightened her back and met Aeris’s gaze. “I’m scared of ghosts.”

A distant rumble in the distance and what might have been a roar. Was the ground trembling or was she still trying to distract from the absurdity of Tifa’s words? “And yet you’re here?”

Tifa shot a worried glance over Aeris’s shoulder. “Yeah. It sounds really stupid, but because I can do this, I feel I have to be here. But I don’t like it. Cloud – when we worked together – he promised me he’d stick with me.” A louder sound and clearly a roar close by. “And then that happened and-“

Aeris took Tifa’s hand and squeezed. “I promise you, right here and now I will keep you safe from whatever we encounter. That’s my promise to you.” The ground trembled and both women swayed, each helping the other keep their balance.

“Thank you. I’ll cope. Don’t like it, but I’ll be okay.”

“None of that.” Aeris squinted at her spirit-meter. It noted something big, powerful, and close. “I’m doing everything to make you feel safe here. You want out of here, we go. No theatrics. And if that thing-“ She nodded towards the graveyard “-gets here; stay behind me. I’ll protect you.”

“Thank you.” Tifa’s response somehow audible despite the screeching wrench of metal and the tremors from the earth below. Her hold on Aeris’s hand tightened and Aeris squeezed back. They would face this threat together. Working on the night-team seemed more involved, more dangerous, and potentially so much better given the company. Assuming they survived whatever was coming for them.

The roar came from close at hand and a wall of discarded trains and debris collapsed. Rushing through the gap was a wheeled chariot, a rider rising behind a horse-like creature. No. Not a horse; something else, something with a curved horn or blade between its eyes. The figure’s gaze flitted between Tifa and Aeris; Tifa squeezed Aeris’s hand tighter. “What the- I’ve never seen anything like that.”

The chariot rumbled heavily towards them. Tifa pulled her hand from Aeris’s grip and leapt aside; Aeris mirrored the action, avoiding the clattering of the hooves and the wheels as the chariot swept across the ground. It kept on going, and circled around towards them. “Physical manifestation.” Tifa yelled out familiar words from Jessie’s supernatural classification system.

“What does that mean for us?” Aeris kept her focus on the approaching chariot, ready to dive to either side. Wait, the rider was not a rider; the figure’s body merged indistinguishably with the body of the horse creature. No back legs. Two legs, two wheels, two arms. Two heads. And oddly fitting for Midgar.

“It’s coming for me.” Tifa stared the creature down; the arc of its movement now ended at Tifa. “You should get away.”

Aeris grit her teeth and ran for Tifa. “I said I’d protect you.” The other women did not respond and instead stared down the approaching entity. Aeris tugged Tifa back and out of the chariot’s path. The chariot swept on, shifting to curve back again. “We need to get out of here.” She pulled at Tifa’s hand and together they ran. No plan beyond get out of the vicinity of the train graveyard. Ghosts would not follow into anywhere more populated. Right? But at night there were so many fewer people. How far would it pursue?

No time to think; she ran on, hoping, striving. Behind the clatter of hoofs, the rattle of the wheels. The Sector Seven station was so tantalisingly close.

A deep pulse sounded somewhere behind Aeris, the sensation of the sound striking in the pit of her stomach. She slowed, muscles exhausted and spent. She struggled, her body impossibly heavy, the mere act of walking somehow beyond her. Her boots slipped on the packed ground, any traction falling impossibly away. “Aeris.” Tifa sounded panicked.

Behind them, the chariot had stopped and now something was wrong with the light. The world warped and flexed, parts of the train graveyard looming larger and shrinking with an unpredictable rhythm. Wind plucked at her clothes and the ground seemed almost tilted back the way they came. Wait. A patch of black lay between them and the chariot; deep, dense blackness, all the warping and strangeness centred on it. “Did it cast a spell?” Her foot slipped and she took an awkward step closer to the centre of the gravity well.

“We’ve encountered ghosts casting magic before, but not like this.” Tifa was right beside her, straining against the rushing wind and the inexorable pull of a miniature singularity.

There was a whole other conversation to be had about Tifa and Cloud fighting with ghosts, but for now the important part was: “What did you do previously?”

“Fire.” Strange grimace from Tifa, but she fumbled a green materia into her hand and closed her eyes. A gout of flame rushed from the fingertips of her other hand, streaking through the air towards the waiting chariot.

But the flames did not reach their target; instead, the ball of fire sank lower, circling over the patch of darkness. It orbited the space, moving faster and faster until it formed a ring encircling a black sphere in the centre, the flames on the inner side rushing away into nothing.

The intensity of the fire dimmed and vanished, the dark mass seemingly darker still, its pull no less inexorable. Aeris strained against the wind billowing past her; Tifa’s foot slipped and she slid forward, hands and feet grasping for a foot hold.

Aeris grabbed for her hand, holding onto Tifa and leaning back, balanced for now. Tifa dug her fingers into the packed ground. Aeris raised her voice over the now howling wind. “Any other ideas?”

“Another spell might work. If I can just-“ Tifa let go of the ground and Aeris was unable to stop her sliding towards the chariot once more. She dug her feels in and hauled Tifa back. “Can you reach my bag?”

She would need to; otherwise they were both doomed. Either to whatever awaited them at the centre of the darkness, or as easy prey for the chariot when it grew tired of waiting. Aeris grasped Tifa, the other woman’s fingers locked around her wrist. Aeris crouched, still leaning back, hand fumbling in front of her and across Tifa’s chest. No time for embarrassment or care; she grabbed at Tifa’s shirt, searching for the strap of her bag.

There. She pulled the bag closer, the air buffeting harder and harder against her back. So much materia. She grabbed at the first. Ice. Maybe? The next was wind. Adding more to the situation would not help. Unless she could blast it back towards them. No. Too risky. “I can’t hang on much longer.” Tifa’s face was a mask of concentration, the strain on Aeris’s arm ever more intense. Pick one. Ah.

Aeris hauled the materia out of the bag, the knowledge of so long ago simply in her head and ready for use. She clenched the materia tight. Wait. She could not direct the spell like this. Taking too long; a gust jolted her forward and she leant further back, something wrenching along her spine. She needed to free her hand, but if she let go of Tifa there was nothing to stop her slide towards the chariot.

Wait.

She did not have to hold the materia. It merely had to make contact with her skin. Aeris tucked the materia under her chin, bracing it against her throat. The knowledge was there once more. She raised her hand, the twinge in her back growing into pain. Hold it together a bit longer.

Aeris cast the spell.

The crack of lightning from her finger arced across the space, unaffected by the swirling vortex. It struck the blade of the horse-head, producing a flicker of an after-image of what might be the creature’s skeleton. The rider roared an terrifying inhuman scream, the horse part reared up, its legs thrashing at the air and it whinnied in pain.

Aeris fell back, Tifa landing awkwardly on top of her, the air still, the darkness gone and its wake lay a warped rent in the ground. Aeris cast the spell again, sending another shock of electricity at the rider, at the horse, at the wheels. Electricity sparked and cracked across it, the figure flailing as if trying to ward the lightning off, the horse head thrashing in pain. With another roar, the chariot swept back towards the train graveyard.

She jabbed her hand forward again, but the bolt drifted; it followed the retreating chariot for a distance and curved to strike the nearest train car.

Safe for now. Aeris slumped back, breathing hard. As if to add to her troubles, a headache now blossomed. Not used to casting spells. “Thank you.” Aeris blinked. Wait; the warm weight against her, the black silken hair spilling across her chest. Tifa was on top of her and far from unwanted. The other woman sat up and glanced back at her. “You saved us.”

“Just did what was necessary.” Aeris gingerly sat up, her back aching in new, frustrating ways. “Oh and sorry for before.” Not the time, but Tifa flushed; Aeris spoke before they dwelled on her actions too much. “I take it that’s never happened before?”

Tifa, cheeks still reddened, shook her head. “Had encounters with ghosts – and usually fire repels them or damages whatever is animating them. But that thing.” She glanced towards the path the chariot vanished down. “Even the physical manifestations capable of magic can’t really muster much damage. That thing was alarmingly proficient.”

“Have to wonder if that’s how things are here. And why-" Aeris frowned.

“You figure something out?”

“Maybe. I mean, you said it was going for you. Can ghost sense that somehow? Do the other ghosts single you out?”

Tifa did not meet her gaze but nodded, keeping her attention on the spell distorted patch of ground. “Not sure if they know, but they are always more interested in me. Hard not to think it’s because of my ability. But still; that was far worse than anything else I've run into.”

“And exactly the kind of ghost we should get rid of. However we can.” Aeris struggled to her feet with a groan. “Wonder if Jessie’s project really can trap them. I’d feel much safer if that one wasn’t roaming around.” She reached out a hand and helped Tifa to her feet, a new twinge in her back almost making her regret it. Almost; Tifa did not let go of her hand. “I know it’s early, but I feel we should call it a night. I mean; we’ve seen the ghost. Fended the ghost off. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I want to go in there without something more potent for protection.”

“I think I’d agree.” Tifa said. An awkward silence. “Do you want to get some coffee? Sounds a better place to slump and write the reports.”

Would have settled for the simply slumping, but in fairness they had to complete the paperwork. “I think I do. And if we’re going to keep on working together, I think we need to plan out how we’ll be operating.” Aeris shot her a grin. “Plus, we should get to know each more.” Coffee and conversation and who knew what else after? A celebration of their first night as a new ghost hunting team.

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies, I misread the prompt somewhat and missed that all four characters were supposed to go on the hunt together! I hope this still works though.


End file.
